1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the tailoring of bulk materials to be suitable for semiconductor applications, and more particularly, to a method of forming a single crystal of AlSb as a material for high-energy radiation detection.
2. State of Technology
Germanium detectors, are unsurpassed for high-resolution gamma-ray spectroscopy and will continue to be the choice for laboratory-based high performance spectrometers. Specifically, Germanium, is a semiconductor that has a relatively low bandgap with a useful property of generating approximately one electron-hole pair for every 2.96 electron Volts (eV) deposited in the bulk of the material. Therefore, for a highly energetic photon of 1 Mev deposited in an exemplary material such as Germanium, the total number of electron hole pairs is approximately 340,000.
However, in order to produce high-resolution detection, Germanium radiation detectors need to operate at liquid-nitrogen temperatures (i.e., −196° C.) to prevent electrons to be thermally excited into the conduction band of the material, (i.e., prevent the generation of noise). Although a number of semiconductor detectors have been developed for ambient temperature operation, e.g., CdTe, CZT, and HgI2, these detectors have been limited by a combination of poor resolution, low efficiency, and degraded performance. There is a strong desire, therefore, to acquire a more suitable material to perform ambient temperature, high-energy x-ray and gamma-ray detection.